tiny happy

Do the blogs you follow get delivered to your inbox, like your own personal magazine page at the end of the day? A couple of months ago, I signed up with bloglovin', to replace google reader which is now unavailable.

I'm liking it- I've now whittled down the blogs I read quite a lot, for time reasons, but receiving the updated ones in this format is actually quite good as I spend less time clicking away on the internet to check new posts.

If you'd like to follow my blog via bloglovin' you can click here– it's easy to sign up. I know there are a few other platforms out there too- this one is a homage to the old google reader, and there's feedly, which looks quite new.

A cold and cloudy week melted into a light weekend. I found wintersweet blossoming in the garden.

This weekend Arlo celebrated his birthday (technically it was two weeks ago) with an all-night party with a group of his friends. The party involved pizza, cake and video games. And not that much sleep, really.

They are funny, those ten year olds. So grownup now in many ways yet still clutching their teddies tight under their sleeping bags. Little-bigs.

Pattern Friday number 15, inspired by green and leaves and branches, this time. There's not much else in the garden these days.

This week's 'pattern friday' is a day late. Got a bit preoccupied yesterday with other work, deadlines, etc but today the sun is shining, the coffee's made, The Magnetic Fields songs are playing, and the newspaper is at the door.

Have a lovely weekend.

The Craft Sessions is a creative retreat in Australia's Yarra Valley featuring peace, friendship and knitting. Also embroidery, sewing, yoga and delicious food. Can you think of a nicer way to welcome in spring?

I am very excited to be teaching at this weekend in October. It will be my first visit to Melbourne/Victoria! I'm looking forward to meeting the women who have dreamed this retreat up and the people who join in. And the other teachers, too. You can read about them here. I'm imagining the weekend as a kind of little Antipodean Squam.

We're still putting the finishing touches on my classes. I do know one will involve sewing something. And the other will probably involve a whole day of walking, collecting, and free-form embroidering. I will keep you posted on the details. Other classes will include all kinds of knitting, garment sewing and block printing.

Do you want stay in the loop about this gorgeous weekend? You can join the mailing list and there's a facebook page.

I'm still on a stationery buzz. That crazy old falling-apart gardening book I mentioned here as helped fuel my interest in making cards and envelopes. I think it's because the images are too nice to pop in the recycling bin but aren't of much use in their current form. And because I like to have a collection of stationery ready in the cupboard to add to packages and etsy shop orders.

So far I've used large manila envelopes and mod-podge to make gift-bags (similar to these), luggage tags and pieces of cardboard (you could even use cut-up cereal boxes) with pasted pictures to make notecards, and many of these little envelopes (template here) each featuring a black and white 'studio' flower arrangement. 

Bright spots from my weekend:

– peachy flowers to celebrate being a mum for ten years (thank you Tom)

– tights + boots weather (got to find something good about this storm)

– sun sparkling through ferns for a bit on sunday morning

– went shopping with my sisters (it's warm and light inside shops, don't you know?) and bought this beautiful new cardigan as a treat. You can't have too many cardies, can you?

Hope your weekend was good too.

: )

Here's a simple painted pattern for today. We're in the midst of a winter storm and I went outside this morning and got all sorts of leaves and twigs in my hair. This pattern was inspired by that. Wellington is wild on the best of days, but I've never seen it like this before. Keep warm and safe, local friends. 

I love Anna Coddington's songs and this is her latest. Keira made an 'inside house' for the guinea pigs last night in a cardboard box lined with straw. That made me think, what happens to all the birds in a storm like this?

I made a few things for Arlo's birthday yesterday- some involved quite a bit of of chocolate, butter, etc. Arlo is a very big fan of cake. Any kind of cake: fruit, nut, carrot, special or plain- he's not fussy and he loves them all. But for his birthday he requested a chocolate cake 'with icing in the middle' and something to take to school to share with his classmates. So I made coconut rough and he said it took just a few minutes for the class to polish it off at 3pm.

Tom and I were thinking about all the houses we've lived in over the past ten years. There have been quite a few of them- something that's caused me maternal guilt when I consider my extremely stable, always-there childhood home. So I made this little painting for A on the occasion of him turning 10. Six houses on six different streets in ten years. It was fun to think about them all and remember how the windows, doors and colours were. Thank you, houses.

Arlo turns ten today- ten! It's hard to believe a decade has passed, yet at the same time not surprising at all. Tom jokes that he feels 50 years old these days.

My friend Kylie took this photo of A wrapped up in his baby blanket. My Mum spun lots of different fleeces to make the yarn for the blocks. Then she knitted them up in various stitch patterns, and some pieces were crocheted to create varying textures. I still love it (and so does he) and it reminds me of that very happy time in 2003 when we lived in a cold and falling-down wooden house and had no money, but it didn't matter at all. Rose-coloured glasses, eh? 

And for today, a special midwinter, Matariki, warm at home, tenth birthday song. One of Arlo's favourites- This Must Be the Place.

Tiny scissors are what I used to make this collage- and also glue and brown card. Plus the cover of the Sunday magazine that comes inside the weekend newspaper.

There's something therapeutic about working on a small-scale and fiddly project like this. Especially when there are many other tasks to be done, things like dishes and washing and making dinner. If it's possible to forget all thost things for half an hour or so. And then you have a little souvenir of your lovely hour spent with scissors and glue in hand.

Favourite song for a peaceful rainy Saturday afternoon- Magnetic North's Bay of Skaill